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A surprise attack on Ukraine - when and where did that happen? Russian troops were massing for quite a while.

codedokode 3y ago
Probably people were thinking that it was a bluff and there would be no invasion. If you look at the map, most of the territory was captured in first days, and then, after Russia has built trenches and minefields it takes lots of resources and time to take back even a single village. So what we should learn from this is that if you want to take a land from some other country (for example: Finland, Sweden or any non-NATO country) then this "surprise attack" strategy is working. You advance 50-200 km into enemy's territory within several days while your enemy is unprepared and then entrench and now your enemy has to storm your well defended positions, go through the minefields, losing many times more soldiers and equipment than you. And you can just sit and wait until they exhaust and surrender. If you don't want that happening to your country then you should fortify your borders and build minefields and trenches first.
- RandomLensman 3y ago
  The US was very clear in their view that Russia was going to attack, for example. It really depends on who you are facing if you even get to entrench. For example: NATO's old plans against the Warsaw Pact pretty much always called for the use of nuclear weapons, so no entrenchment there (with the assumption that the larger Warsaw Pact forces would be able to rapidly advance initially, despite some preparation to block progress).
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - helij 3y ago
    Of course they were clear because they knew. Putin made a speech and presented an ultimatum[0]. Big powers know this stuff. NATO & US would never agree to any of the points in the ultimatum so the only move forward for Russia was to invade. That's how big powers played throughout the history. Nothing really changed. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_December_2021_ultimatum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_December_2021_ultimatu...

Probably people were thinking that it was a bluff and there would be no invasion. If you look at the map, most of the territory was captured in first days, and then, after Russia has built trenches and minefields it takes lots of resources and time to take back even a single village. So what we should learn from this is that if you want to take a land from some other country (for example: Finland, Sweden or any non-NATO country) then this "surprise attack" strategy is working. You advance 50-200 km into enemy's territory within several days while your enemy is unprepared and then entrench and now your enemy has to storm your well defended positions, go through the minefields, losing many times more soldiers and equipment than you. And you can just sit and wait until they exhaust and surrender. If you don't want that happening to your country then you should fortify your borders and build minefields and trenches first.

RandomLensman 3y ago
The US was very clear in their view that Russia was going to attack, for example. It really depends on who you are facing if you even get to entrench. For example: NATO's old plans against the Warsaw Pact pretty much always called for the use of nuclear weapons, so no entrenchment there (with the assumption that the larger Warsaw Pact forces would be able to rapidly advance initially, despite some preparation to block progress).
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- helij 3y ago
  Of course they were clear because they knew. Putin made a speech and presented an ultimatum[0]. Big powers know this stuff. NATO & US would never agree to any of the points in the ultimatum so the only move forward for Russia was to invade. That's how big powers played throughout the history. Nothing really changed. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_December_2021_ultimatum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_December_2021_ultimatu...